fecret Ambition of his Heart) muft never hope to make the Figure You have done, among the fafhionable part of his Species. It is therefore no wonder, we fee fuch Multitudes of afpiring young Men fall fhort of You in all these Beauties of your Character, notwithstanding the Study and Practice of them is the whole Business of their Lives. But I need not tell You that the free and difengaged Behaviour of a fine Gentleman makes as many aukward Beaux, as the Eafinefs of your Favourite Waller hath made infipid Poets. At present You are content to aim all your Charms at your own Spoufe, without further Thought of yet, to of Mischief to any others of the Sex. I know you had formerly a very great Contempt for that Pedantick Race of Mortals who call themfelves Philofophers; and yet, your Honour be it fpoken, there is not a Sage of them all could have better, acted up to their Precepts in one of the most important Points of Life: I mean in that Generous Dif-regard of Popular Opinion, which you fhowed fome Years ago, when you chofe for your Wife an obfcure young Woman, who doth not indeed pretend to an ancient Family, but has certainly as many Fore-fathers as any Lady in the Land, if the could but reckon up their Names. 1 I muft own I conceived very extraordinary hopes of you from the Moment, that you confeffed your Age, and from eight and forty (where you had ftuck fo many Years) very ingenuously step'd into your Grand Climacterick. Your De portment has fince been very venerable and becoming. If I am rightly informed, You make a regular Appearance every QuarterSeffions among your Brothers of the Quorum; and if things go on as they do, stand fair for being a Colonel of the Militia. I am told that your Time paffes away as agreeably in the Amusements of a Country Life, as it ever did in the Gallantries of the Town: And that you you now take as much pleasure in the Planting of young Trees, as you did formerly in the Cutting down of your Old ones. In fhort, we hear from all Hands that You are thoroughly reconciled to your dirty Acres, and have not too much Wit to look into your own Estate. After having spoken thus much of my Patron, I must take the Pri-vilege of an Author in saying something of my felf. I fhall therefore beg leave to add, that I have purpofely omitted fetting those Marks to the End of every Paper, which appeared in my former Volumes, that You may have an Opportunity of showing Mrs. Honeycomb the Shrewdness of your Conjectures, by afcribing |